


Crush

by dizzy



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:04:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/559771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy





	Crush

It doesn’t take long for Darren to realize that Chris has a crush on him. He’s seen the signs before; the blush on a girl’s face when they talk, the way eyes will cut to him wherever he’s at in a room. Without trying to sound egotistical about it, he’s learned to spot the signs.  
  
He’s pretty sure a guy has never had a thing for him before, but it doesn’t bother him. It’s cute - maybe a little accurate, for the characters, and it’s not like Chris is doing anything about it. There’s only about a day or two of awkwardness after Darren realizes. He watches Chris a little too closely, tries to gauge whether or not he needs to back off the burgeoning friendship.  
  
But Chris seems… fine. He seems just fine. He doesn’t hover, he doesn’t pine. He doesn’t seem to put weight behind Darren’s words that Darren doesn’t mean.  
  
So it’s just a crush. Darren tells himself that it’ll pass and he tries to ignore it, because he likes Chris, and he doesn’t want this to be weird because Chris is… he’s pretty fucking awesome, actually. He’s funny in a weird, dry, _smart_ way that catches Darren off guard. Sometimes he has to replay the things Chris says a couple of times in his mind before he gets a joke but once he does he wants to go around and repeat it to everyone he knows because fuck, the dude is funny. Sometimes he does and Chris gets that bashful flushed look and bites his lip like he just wants to smile so big and it’s really too damn endearing.  
  
Sometimes Darren just wants to hug Chris. Just wants to reel him in and squeeze him tight and ruffle his hair and tell him how _awesome_ he is, because he gets the feeling like Chris hasn’t heard that enough in his life. He might hear it a lot right now but it’s easy to dismiss something strangers say and it’s hard to erase a decade and a half of not thinking you’re cool enough.  
  
But Chris has a crush on him and so Darren doesn’t do that. He doesn’t do any of that, and Chris is… fine. Every day on set, every cast party, every screening and premiere. Chris is fine. They’re both fine…  
  
Until one day Darren isn’t.  
  
Until one day Darren walks over to Chris and - well, he’s drunk, first of all. He’s drunk and he’s been watching Chris dance with some guy and not even look at Darren and he’s been growing steadily more displeased by the whole state of events. Because he hadn’t even realized how the first thing he does now when he walks into a room is check to see if Chris is watching him until the first time he does it and Chris isn’t.  
  
So he dances with a girl, and then another girl, and then the third one he doesn’t so much dance with as just blatantly grind on. He’s getting funny looks from most of his friends that he doesn’t notice, and no looks at all from the one person he can’t peel his eyes away from.  
  
He’s still watching Chris when Ashley goes over to him and whispers something in his ear that makes Chris look around in confusion until his eyes meet Darren’s.  
  
Darren doesn’t shy away from the gaze. He even feels a little victorious when Chris excuses himself from the guy he was dancing way, way too close to and walks over.  
  
“Okay there?” Chris has to lean in to be heard. “Hey, why don’t we go outside? Get some fresh air?”  
  
Darren doesn’t want fresh air. He wants Chris to leave him alone, except he doesn’t want Chris to go away to do it, because if Chris goes away he might go back to that guy. He might go _home_ with that guy and Darren feels himself working back up to a full on glower at the very idea.  
  
Chris halfway drags him outside, and then turns and looks at Darren with the most concerned frown. “What’s going on?”  
  
“Nothing,” Darren spits back. Fuck, he sounds angry. Fuck, he _is_ angry.  
  
Chris jolts back like Darren’s actually slapped him. “What?”  
  
“Just, just go. Go back in, go.” Darren half-heartedly shoves at him, but he’s had way too much to drink and his coordination is shot. “Get the fuck out of here, okay? Get out of my face.”  
  
“Why? What did I do?” Chris sounds - oh, shit. He sounds a little… he sounds a lot… crushed. His face is red and his eyes are shining and shit Darren’s made him cry. Chris, who is basically the nicest person he knows, who puts up with all of this shit in life and does so with the most grace Darren has ever sene contained in one person, who puts up with all of _Darren’s_ shit and still looks at him like Darren hung the moon, and now…  
  
Now Darren is making him cry. “No, hey, Chris, no…”  
  
Chris is blinking rapidly, stepping back and crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be… I’m drunk too, I think.” His laugh is shaky and not at all real, not a happy sound. “I’ll just…”  
  
He makes a vague gesture back to the door and turns around.  
  
Darren lurches forward and grabs his wrist. “You like me, don’t you?”  
  
“What?” Chris actually starts to look a little sick and then a lot more miserable. “How did you know?”  
  
“I could tell,” Darren says.  
  
“Is that why you’re mad at me?”  
  
“No! Of course not. I’m not like, I’m not a fucking homophobe.” Darren frowns hard. “I’m not mad at you.”  
  
“Yes, you are!” Chris’s voice goes higher. “You just told me to get out of your face!”  
  
“Because you were dancing with that guy!” Darren half shouts.  
  
“So?” Chris’s arms fly out in a confused gesture.  
  
“I don’t like that you were dancing with him!”  
  
Abruptly Chris takes another step back. “What?”  
  
Darren blinks hard, willing the world to stop tilting just a little so he can figure out what he’s just said, what the implications there are. “Hey. I like that you like me.”  
  
“You’re straight,” Chris says.  
  
Darren… shrugs. “I’m drunk and I’ve spent all night pissed that you were paying attention to someone else.  
  
“Oh.” Chris seems strangely willing to accept that. His shoulders slump a little bit his expression is a little more resolved. “So it’s an ego thing? You like the attention?”  
  
This is Darren’s out.  
  
“No,” Darren says. He clarifies: “Not the attention. Just you.”  
  
Chris just stares at him.  
  
*  
  
It doesn’t take long for Chris to realize that Darren has a crush on him.  
  
He’s never actually seen the signs before, not up close and person in a viable candidate for requiting said crush-level feelings, but that doesn’t matter. Between the kissing and the freakishly endearing hand-holding manuevers and the serenading, Darren makes it pretty fucking obvious.


End file.
